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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Black Numbers

The author, Dean Lappi

I'm lucky enough to have Dean Lappi, author of Black Numbers, writing a column for Fresh Pot of Tea today. Black Numbers is a hybrid, a book that is both fantasy and horror, and it's definitely not for the faint of heart. However, if you like exploring new possibilities and other dimensions, then it is a gripping read. The book takes hold and won't let you go; I still am haunted by some of the scenes in it.

The inspiration for my hybrid dark fantasy/horror novel BLACK NUMBERS hit me one day in a coffee shop. I sat on a comfy overstuffed chair next to a fireplace listening to people chatter all about me, and I had my laptop open in front of me. It is a setting that allows me to let my mind wander freely, and that is when the best ideas come to me. On this particular day, I had come to the coffee shop to do some free-writing, which is something I do just to see if something interesting comes from nothing.

As I let my mind wander, I thought of the fantasy genre, which has been my favorite genre since I was a little boy. I always lost myself in the fantastic stories by Tolkien, Donaldson, Anthony, Robertson, Kurtz; the list is very long of authors who took me to lands I never dreamed could exist. And as I sat in this coffee shop thinking about them, I closed my eyes and asked myself, what is the one thing all Fantasy novels seem to have in common?

Magic!

That one word appeared in my mind.

Magic is the binding energy that brings together every fantasy story. But as I sat in that huge overstuffed chair on that day, I suddenly thought, "What if magic could be explained mathematically. Wouldn't that be cool? What if a spell was actually a mathematical equation?"

The idea hit me almost as a physical blow. I sat back and visualized the character of Sid (his name popped into my head immediately) and how he could use advanced mathematics to create true magic.

I immediately started typing, and I wrote 2500 words without stopping once. Those words ultimately turned out to be Chapter 1 in Black Numbers, and those first words have not changed much even after the professional edits the book has received from Fantasy Island Book Publishing before it went to print.

I wrote the novel from that first chapter all the way to the end in just three months, with the story unfolding in my head as I typed. It was an amazing experience.

Now I am writing book two in the series, called Blood Numbers, and the story is growing, the world is expanding in my head, and I can't put the words down on paper quickly enough.

As authors, inspiration strikes us all in different ways, and it is the spark that ignites the flame of a story in our minds.

What a great marriage--magic and math. It reminds me of my favorite author in college, Hermann Hesse (you know, back in the days we could read just everything). His books definitely combine the two as it sounds like BLACK NUMBERS does. Congrats, Dean!